Beetlejuice
Season 2: The Sleeper Saga
Episode 39: The Sleeper Awakens – Part 2
Slowly, Lydia could feel a fog lift inside of her head. Some memories returning to her in small pieces. Memories of events, people, places. She was among her best friends, Beetlejuice, Prudence, Bertha. She began to recognize Merlin, although she could have sworn he was much older. The one friend she remembered that she couldn't see was Claire. Her head pounded from the confusion. How could she have forgotten her friends? What made her forget in the first place? What was going on? She rubbed her forehead and gazed at the scene before her. There was Merlin with Autumn, the mermaid she had just met and learned who was Merlin's lover, sitting in the shallows embracing and talking silently. Beetlejuice was looking around, practicing his morphing capabilities, changing into the various animals that approached, then manipulating and contorting his face to scare the living daylights out of them. He would then burst out laughing, and automatically morph back into his original form.
Bertha began practicing with her amulet. Bringing out her dragons and taming them, while Prudence began studying the pages of the Angelic Journal. Still not remembering much about her friends, Lydia struggled to think of how they met and what kind of people they were. Trying to work up the strength to find out, but as she began to move, she felt a rage that only subsided as she sat back down.
Demon Lydia thrashed and growled incoherently. Making threats and attempts to carry them out. "Rage will dominate!" She screamed. "Once I have absolute control of this body, I will lay waste to the entire cosmos." Clare was frightened by this version. Her friend with no restraints, no concern, nothing but hatred and rage. "What do I do?" She asked herself. Strength, Logic, and Innocence sat asking themselves the same thing. "We need to revive the rest of Lydia's history and personality." Logic then answered. "And how do we do that?" Strength asked with her stomach still clutched in pain. "I can't move and Claire doesn't know enough about Lydia to revive everyone. Monoliths are easy enough to repair, but what about us?"
"I've been thinking too close to the surface." Claire began thinking. "Even after everything that happened, my parents spending more time with me, making friends with Lydia, Bertha and Prudence, learning that there were more worlds out there with larger problems like tyrannical rule. Even after all of that, I can still only look skin deep, scratching the surface of what people truly are." Then an idea hit her. "The Dragon's Ring uses my thoughts and manifests them into the effect generated by my arrows. If I open my mind to infinite possibilities… MIND. I'm in Lydia's mind, not in the physical world. Rules are different with thoughts and memory." She then drew her bow and pointed the arrow as high as she could praying, "Please work."
Emptying her mind of all personal thought, then asked Innocence to approach. "I need you to remember everyone you can as best as you can." As innocence approached, she thought of everyone she knew. Knowledge, Wisdom, Heart, Sincerity, etc. Logic quietly approached from behind and thought of those she knew. Kindness, Reliability, Steadfastness, Youth, etc. And last, but not least, Strength approached as best as she could, joining the others. "Why are we remembering everyone?" Strength then grunted out. "I'm letting your thoughts and memories fuel this arrow. Hopefully it'll restore everything back to the way it was." Claire responded and drew the arrow back fully. Strength then closed her eyes and remembered who she knew. Steadiness, Dependability, Art, Creativity, even Rage and Despair what they once were without the demonic possession.
Just as Claire let lose the arrow, Demon Lydia struggled one final time and broke her bonds. She lunged at the group claws ready to tear off Claire's head. As the arrow reached its peak, it burst into a shower of raindrops made of golden light. In that same instance, Strength painfully pushed herself in the path of Demon Lydia's assault and was promptly torn in half at the waist. Rather than seeing sprays of blood, Strength simply dissolved into nothing. Logic began to panic while Innocence clung to Claire in fright.
Demon Lydia attempted to take one more swipe as two drops of the golden rain fell on her. In that instance she split into two beings. One with a constant angry expression, and the other with tear stains running down her cheeks. Because of this, rather than having her face clawed off, Claire was simply punched in the cheek by the angry one. Held up by innocence, Claire took one step back from the impact to her cheek and turned back to gaze at whom she guessed was Anger or Rage. Rage flared up at Claire ready to take, yet another strike, when another hand grabbed her wrist, mid punch. There, stood Strength, fully healed and with a confident grin on her face.
"Sup Rage? Long-time-no-see." She taunted the angry Lydia just before planting a punch of her own, sending Rage spiraling to the ground. Rage rubbed her cheek and sat up when the tear stained Lydia said in a depressed and lonely tone of voice, "I told you we'd lose." Rage gazed on as all of the rest of the slain versions of Lydia and all of the broken monoliths and shrines were restored by the golden rain. Rage's anger flared up once again, "He promised us power! He promised us unrivaled strength. How did we lose?" Hearing her ramblings, Claire began to ask, "Who promised you power?" But was cut off when she found herself enveloped in yellow light.
Back in the outside world, Claire found herself cocooned in a golden-yellow shell that cracked and split with just her pushing on its walls. Once she broke through, she turned to gaze at her prison, watching it crumble into golden dust that dissipated and vanished inches before it touched the ground. Claire gazed around and found the body of the fallen cheerleader. Remembering the words of the dragon that even its power cannot bring back the dead, she paid her respects to her fallen compatriot. After laying the body to rest and pushing aside her grief until the whole ordeal was over, Claire triggered her Dragon's Ring. The armor she wore in Lydia's mind realm appeared on her and she drew an arrow, focusing her thoughts on her friend Lydia. She fired the arrow at the ground ten feet away from her feet and the energy then began to swirl in place, creating a circular shape of golden energy. Claire promptly ran up to the pool of energy and jumped into it.
Lydia looked around, memories flooding back. Pieces of herself that she thought had vanished found themselves wandering out of the fog. Laughter, happiness, fear, ecstasy, worry, hope, sadness… all of her emotions and quirks. She looked at her hands and remembered drawing characters and monsters. She looked to the sky remembering everything she knew and everything she felt. A burden lifting on her that she never knew was there. Slowly, she stood up, gazing, one by one, to her friends. A single tear strolled down her left cheek as she remembered the days she met each of them.
Suddenly, Autumn perked her head up from Merlin's shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Love, it has been fulfilled. That which was lost most precious has been returned." Merlin gazed at his lover in mild shock, "When? How? Who?" He stammered. Suddenly, a circle made of golden energy sparked six feet above the sand near the lake and out dropped Claire in full armor. She stood straight after righting herself from the landing and spun in all directions to look for her friends, who promptly ran up and toppled her over in a group hug. They began asking questions and sharing stories until Autumn announced herself by clearing her throat.
All attention was on her. Autumn then approached Claire, her fin morphing and shifting into legs. Her torso and abdomen covered by a seaweed gown, "You have given a precious thing back to your friend Lydia." She stated to the blond girl. Confused as to who this woman even IS, Claire cautiously asked, "What did I give back?" "You have given your friend back, herself. Personalities, past experiences…all that makes her who she is. And thus you have earned the right to seize Excalibur." Autumn gestured at the lake as she finished her sentence. "Now you must be the one to take it." Hesitantly, Claire moved past the strange woman and over to the lake. As soon as she looked into the waters she could make out a blurred shape. It looked to be made of metal and was tall and thin. And it was rising toward the surface.
She stepped back as soon as the object breached the surface in the center of the lake, pommel first. It was a gleaming steel sword with a cross guard make of fine gold. A decoration on the base of the blade was of three decorated circles overlapping each other, signifying unity. The ends of the cross guard were rounded each with a sapphire encrusted into the ends of them. The handle was wrapped in a fine red silk fit for at least three of Claire's hands. The pommel looked similar to the cross guard ends except had an encrusted ruby in the middle rather than a sapphire. The blade was that of a broadsword, slightly taller than Claire herself. It was beautiful and swell polished with a decorated bevel traveling up the center of the blade and ending two and a half inches from the blade's tip.
Claire gazed at it in awe with Autumn standing close by with a sense of nostalgia on her face. "Now reach out and claim your prize." Autumn then said. Confused, Claire asked, "What should I do, swim out there? It's a good hundred yards out there." Slightly annoyed but still poised, Autumn simply replied, "I already told you what you should do."
Claire turned back to the sword, thinking about what the woman standing next to her just said. Then calmly, and by sheer instinct, she reached out her right arm to beckon it. The blade then instantly launched away from the water, leaving only minor ripples on the surface. It arched and spun around, pointing its blade upward and landing smoothly in Claire's hand. Startled, she stepped back and almost dropped the sword on the beach. Everyone gathered around to see the sword that flew into Claire's hand. As the blade moved in Claire's hand it gave off a distortion as if it was searing hot, but when Claire rested the blade in her other hand, it was cool to the touch. It was Prudence who broke the silence when she began to squeal excitedly. "That's Excalibur!" She squeaked out, barely audible. Remembering the words of the shadow figure from the tree trunk, Lydia stated, "Yah, it is. And we need to give it back to Arthaer."
From within the Neitherworld, Grimnak paced and paced around his little hovel. "Damn, I can finally remember that bastard's name, but where was he buried? I was sealed away long before he was hit by that stupid arrow." An idea then hit him, "Perhaps I can simply follow my adversaries to his destination rather than look for it myself." It was at this time, that he heard his own voice state from his right side, "Master, I have found you what you asked for." Grimnak turned to see one of his doppelgangers with an armful of black clothing. A black t-shirt with a dark gray pattern on the left breast that extended past the shoulder, a pair of black khakis, a black trench coat, and a pair of black combat boots with a long pair of wool socks. "Perfect." Grimnak stated. He then looked to his right and found the gate dissipated. "Looks like the other one failed." He then turned to the crystals within his little cavern and smirked. "Perhaps the solution was provided by my brethren." He then took a small, hand sized crystal, broke it from its resting place and focused. The crystal shrank and shrank in size, melting into a green mist that flowed into Grimnak's mouth, restoring a tiny portion of color to his pale dead skin. "It's better than nothing." He stated and grinned gleefully at the remaining crystals.
End of Season 2 Episode 19